Regrettably, the typical Christian is transformed in his spirit but remains untransformed in his soul. In a great many believers, there are scarcely any signs that Christ has entered into their mind, emotion, and will. For example, there may be a brother who, having been saved by the Lord, is regenerated. This means that his spirit is transformed. But this brother may have a soul that is very slow in everything. Even though the Lord may want to do something quickly, that brother can only do things slowly. Although the Lord is in this brother’s spirit, he remains slow because the Lord has not yet spread into his soul. It may be that even when the Lord inspires him in his spirit, he remains very slow in his soul and does not respond to the Lord’s inward inspiration. While some persons are very slow, others are very quick in everything they do. They are fast in their thinking, feeling, and action. They suffer the same problem as the slow brother but in reverse. The situation of such persons indicates that although they may be transformed in their spirit, in their soul they remain quite natural.
When I was young, I frequently went to listen to an elderly preacher who was very slow in his soul. In one message he said, “Brothers, look at the Scriptures. There is not one instance of God ever doing something quickly. The Lord is always slow.” This brother thought that because he was slow, God also was slow. Not long after hearing this brother speak, I met a young minister who was very quick. He told me, “There is at least one time that the Lord acted so quickly that He had to run to do it.” He then referred to Luke 15:20, where the father ran to meet the prodigal son. This young preacher used this verse to prove that the Lord is quick. These two preachers were two different kinds of persons; one was slow in nature, and the other was fast in nature. The preacher who was slow in nature insisted that the Lord was slow, and the one who was fast in nature insisted that the Lord was fast. By this we can see that regardless of our individual characteristics, our soul is natural and must be transformed. We should never remain in our natural thought. Our natural mind, emotion, and will must be transformed so that we will be able to have the image of Christ.
Genesis 1:26 tells us that God created man in His own image and according to His own likeness. An illustration of this is a glove made in the image of a hand. A glove is made in the image of a hand for the purpose of containing a hand. In like manner, man was made in the image of God for the purpose of containing God. Just as a hand fits into a glove, the Lord’s intention was to put Himself into man. A glove has five fingers because our hand has five fingers. In the same way, since the Lord has a mind, emotion, and will, He created us with a mind, emotion, and will (Phil. 2:5; Rom. 9:13; Rev. 4:11). It is because we were created in God’s image that we have a soul with a mind, emotion, and will.
On the day that we received Christ as our life, He came into us. First, He came into our spirit. This is like a hand coming into the part of the glove that is fashioned according to the palm of the hand. When the Lord came into us initially, He was limited to our spirit. Now, day by day the Lord wants to spread gradually from our spirit into all the parts of our being. He wants to spread from our spirit into our mind, from our spirit into our emotion, and from our spirit into our will. The Lord’s spreading into the different parts of our soul can be likened to the fingers of a hand entering into the fingers of a glove. After this gradual spreading of Christ within our being has taken place, we will be able to say that we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). Although we can all say with assurance that at present we have the Spirit of Christ in our spirit, not many of us can say that we have the mind of Christ in our mind, the emotion of Christ in our emotion, and the will of Christ in our will. One day, however, we will be able to say this with assurance. Our mind, emotion, and will were made so that the mind, emotion, and will of Christ could enter into them.
The reason most of us cannot say that we have the mind, emotion, and will of Christ is that these parts of our being remain in their fallen condition and have not yet been transformed. The Lord desires to spread Himself from our spirit into all the parts of our soul. The Lord spreads into these parts by our growing up into Christ in all things (Eph. 4:15). This growth is not the accumulation of knowledge about doctrines and teachings. For a Christian to grow means that Christ continually expands from his spirit into his mind, emotion, and will.
Once, a sister’s husband died. The sister was quite mature and had grown up into Christ in many things. She had the Lord not only in her spirit; she had Him also in her mind, emotion, and will. Usually when people experience such loss, they become very sorrowful and inconsolable. Yet this sister was able to thank and praise the Lord. When the saints were with her at that time, they could sense that the Lord was not only in her spirit but also in her soul, particularly in her emotion. In contrast to this sister, there was another sister who lost her husband. She was rather young in the Lord and was not very mature in Him. After her husband’s death, although we went to fellowship with her, she could not listen to us and could only weep bitterly. It did not matter how much we talked with her; she simply could not listen. In her we saw a person who, no doubt, had the Lord in her spirit but at that time did not have the Lord in her emotion even to a small degree. In these two sisters, both of whom had lost their husband, we see a great contrast. Whereas the mature sister had undergone much transformation of her soul, it was clear that the younger sister’s emotion had not yet been transformed. This shows that although the Lord entered into our spirit at the time we were saved, we still need to experience the transformation of our soul.
The Scriptures tell us that the soulish man, the man of the soul, cannot receive anything spiritual (1 Cor. 2:14). It is impossible for such a man to receive the things of the Spirit of God. Hence, the soulish man, with his natural mind, emotion, and will, must be transformed by being put to death and resurrected (John 12:24-26; Matt. 16:24-25). This is transformation by the renewing of the mind (Eph. 4:23). Only through death and resurrection can our mind with the rest of our soul be renewed. It is not enough to be regenerated and transformed in our spirit; we must be transformed in our soul. Not being transformed in our soul is our great problem.
The way we can be delivered from the soulish man and transformed in our soul is to always look to the Lord to strengthen us to do one thing—to stop. Whenever we are about to think, to love, or to make a decision, we must stop. Oh, brothers and sisters, I want to give you this one little word: Stop! We must stop! When we are going to love something, we must say, “Stop!” When we are going to think about something, we must say, “Stop!” To stop is to put ourselves to death.
Sometimes it may be that immediately after praying in the morning, you recall what a brother said to you the day before. As you think about it, you may become offended. When this sort of thought comes to you, do you go along with it? If you go along with this thought and give it ground in you, it proves that your mind has not yet been transformed. It indicates that your mind, like an empty finger of a glove, does not yet have the content for which it was created. When you go along with such thoughts, you can be sure that there is very little of Christ in your mind. Instead of going along with these thoughts, you must stop. You must put your mind to death. At such times, you should pray, “Lord, strengthen me to put my mind to death.” Please remember that where there is the death of the cross, there is the resurrection life of Christ. When you put your mind to death, be sure that the resurrection life of Christ will follow. When we stop and allow our mind to be put to death, our mind will become a resurrected mind. A resurrected mind is a renewed mind. When we have a renewed mind, there will be a change in our thinking. This change is actually the transformation of the mind. Because your mind has been transformed by renewing, that is, by being put to death and resurrected, you will testify that this brother is a grace and a gift to you from the Lord. Your having this thought is an indication that your mind has been transformed. This transformation is actually the Spirit of Christ spreading into your mind to fill it with Himself.
Some saints are very emotional. When they are happy, they are happy to the extent that they forget about everything, including Christ Himself. Also, when such ones are sorrowful, they may forget about the Lord. Emotional people must learn to tell their natural man to stop. When you are about to be happy and laugh, it is best not to laugh too much and instead learn to tell yourself to stop. Learn to put your soulish man to death by the strengthening of the Holy Spirit. Some people are quick to lose their temper. Such people are also too emotional. When you are about to lose your temper, you have to say, “Lord, strengthen me to stop my emotion.” If you put your emotion to death, resurrection will follow. Your emotion will be resurrected and filled with the Holy Spirit. Then when you are happy, the image of Christ will be in your happiness, and when you love something, the image of Christ will be in your love. We will eventually have the image of Christ in our mind, emotion, and will because we will have been transformed in our soul into the image of Christ, and He will have spread into every part of our being.